MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : DAS TRIVIALISTE IST JETZT HOCHKULTUR UNTER DER REGENBOGENFAHNE

Diana-Statue und Denkmalstürze : Standbilder aus dem Mutterland

  • Ein Kommentar von Ursula Scheer  FAZ –  03.07.2021-09:15  – Den Söhnen mag solcher Kitsch verziehen sein: Die Statue Dianas von Ian Rank-Broadley wird gerade durch ihre künstlerische Dürftigkeit unangreifbar. In England wird eine Diana-Statue enthüllt, in Kanada stürzen britische Königinnen vom Sockel. Das ist ein vielsagendes Zusammentreffen.

Da steht sie nun, die „Königin der Herzen“, in Bronze gegossen auf einem Sockel im Londoner Kensington Palace: Diana, Prinzessin von Wales, die gleich einer profanen Schutzmantelmadonna – nur ohne Mantel – drei Kinder unter ihre Fittiche nimmt. Da stürzen sie im kanadischen Winnipeg: eine Statue von Königin Victoria, der im Kensington-Palast geborenen Monarchin des britisches Weltreichs, und ein Standbild von Elisabeth II., die als Oberhaupt des Commonwealth für Verbundenheit über die Dekolonisierung hinaus steht.

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The Crisis in Relations Between Jews and Arabs in Israel: Can the Rift Be Healed?

MESOPOTAMIA NEWS IRAN :  2 July 2021 The country’s supreme leader has promoted hard-line Islamic cleric (Al-Monitor) Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei to serve as head of its judiciary after the departure of President-Elect Ebrahim Raisi, who is set to take office in August.

by Michael Milstein BY FIKRA FRUM WASHINGTON – Jun 16, 2021 – Michael Milstein is the Head of the Palestinian Studies Forum at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies.

Brief Analysis

Without genuine, serious introspection, any resolution to the current tensions between Arabs and Jews in Israel will likely be superficial.

The rioting that broke out in Israeli Arab society during Operation “Guardian of the Walls”, an armed conflict between Israel and Hamas lasting from May 10 to May 21, 2021, was one of the lowest points in relations between Jewish citizens and Arabs in Israel. Unlike previous crises like “Land Day” in 1976 or the incidents in October 2000, which consisted of clashes between Arab citizens and the security services in Israel, most of the most recent confrontations were between citizens from the two sides of Israeli society.

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MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : …… ABER KÖNNEN WIR JE AUF ANNALENA B. VERZICHTEN ?

Annalena, es reicht!

Annalena Baerbock hat es mit dem Pippi Langstrumpf-Motto : „Ich mache mir die Welt, wie sie mir gefällt“ sehr weit gebracht

Von Vera Lengsfeld  – 2 Juli 2021 – Bis zur Kanzlerkandidatin der Grünen. Wenn es nach den Jubel-Medien gegangen wäre, würde sie im September ins Kanzleramt einziehen. Die Frage, ob eine Frau, die das Netz für einen Stromspeicher hält und die nicht weiß, was Kobalt ist (kann man das recyclen?), für das höchste Amt im Staat taugt, wurde von den Haltungs-Journalisten nicht gestellt. Aber dann brach die böse Realität trotzdem in die schöne grüne Welt ein. Erst wurde aufgedeckt, dass Annalena ihren Lebenslauf tüchtig aufgehübscht hatte. Nun kommt raus, dass sie ihr Buch, das rechtzeitig vor der Wahl medienwirksam präsentiert wurde, in Passagen nicht ihr geistiges Eigentum zu sein scheint. Welche Rolle ihr Co-Autor dabei spielt, der auch schon an Heiko Maaß-Publikationen mitgewirkt hat, ist nicht relevant. Verantwortlich für das Endprodukt ist Baerbock allein.

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MESOPOTAMIA NEWS BACKGROUND : How Turkey Bypasses Western Arms Embargoes

By Burak Bekdil July 2, 2021 BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 2,086, July 2, 2021 –  ISRAEL

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: US and Canadian embargoes are threatening Turkey’s attack helicopter and drone sales to third-party countries. Ankara has come up with a corporate legal solution to this problem, but it might fail to overcome the political impetus behind the export restrictions.

In a landmark $1.5 billion deal in 2018, Turkey agreed to sell 30 of its T129 attack helicopters (allegedly indigenous but in fact produced under an Italian-British license) to Pakistan. This would constitute one of the Turkish defense industry’s largest-ever weapons export deals. Turkey was so desperate to make the sale that it even offered its Asian ally a $1.5 billion credit line in 2017.

The Turks went ahead and celebrated landing the contract without considering that it might be blocked by some unforeseen glitch.

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MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : From china via Pakistan to Afghanistan / China even actively encourages a strong U.S.-Pakistani relationship.

How a U.S. Base in Pakistan Serves China’s Interests

China would surely be more than happy to let the United States eliminate its enemies and incur the reputational costs from any civilian casualties.

by Rupert Stone  THE NATIONAL INTEREST  2 July 2021 – As the United States withdraws its remaining forces from Afghanistan, the Biden administration is scrambling to secure an “over the horizon” counterterrorism capability that would enable it to strike and surveil terrorist groups from a base outside the country.

Pakistan is one option for such a facility, given its proximity to the parts of Afghanistan where transnational terror groups such as Al Qaeda tend to reside. But its government has flatly rejected hosting U.S. forces, even though negotiations have reportedly taken place.

Pundits have assumed that China, Pakistan’s closest economic and security partner, would also oppose an American base due to its intensifying rivalry with the United States.

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MESOPOTAMIA NEWS Explainer: When is the US war in Afghanistan really over?

Robert Burns and Lolita C. Baldor, The Associated Press  US MILITARY TIMES

WASHINGTON (AP) — As the last U.S. combat troops prepare to leave Afghanistan, the question arises: When is the war really over?

For Afghans the answer is clear but grim: no time soon. An emboldened Taliban insurgency is making battlefield gains, and prospective peace talks are stalled. Some fear that once foreign forces are gone, Afghanistan will dive deeper into civil war. Though degraded, an Afghan affiliate of the Islamic State extremist network also lurks.

For the United States and its coalition partners, the endgame is murky. Although all combat troops and 20 years of accumulated war materiel will soon be gone, the head of U.S Central Command, Gen. Frank McKenzie, will have authority until September to defend Afghan forces against the Taliban. He can do so by ordering strikes with U.S. warplanes based outside of Afghanistan, according to defense officials who discussed details of military planning on condition of anonymity.

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MESOPOTAMIA NEWS INTEL : Main suspect in potentially momentous hacker-for-hire case seeks plea deal in NY

by Joseph Fitsanakis INTEL ORG   2 July 2021

IN A DRAMATIC CASE, described by observers as “unusual”, a suspect in a hacker-for-hire scheme of potentially global proportions has told United States government prosecutors he is ready to discuss a plea deal. The case centers on Aviram Azari, a highly sought-after private detective who served in an Israeli police surveillance unit in the 1990s before launching a private career in investigations.

Azari was arrested in Florida in 2019 during a family vacation, and was shortly afterwards indicted in New York on charges of aggravated identity theft, conspiracy to commit computer hacking, and wire fraud. These charges reportedly date back to 2017 and 2018. Azari’s alleged objective was to target carefully selected individuals in order to steal their personal information, including email usernames and passwords. Last year, The New York Times reported that the case against Azari is connected with a potentially massive hacker-for-hire scheme code-named DARK BASIN.

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MESOPOTAMIA NEWS UP TO DATE : AFGHANISTAN CONTINUES TO DESCEND INTO VIOLENCE WITH NO END IN SIGHT
Bottom Line Up Front: THE SOUFAN CENTER  2 July 2021
  • While the Taliban has long followed a “fight-and-talk” approach, in early July 2021, there is a lot of fighting and not much talking in Afghanistan.
  • Recent assessments by the U.S. intelligence community concluded that the Afghan government could collapse within the next six months.
  • Entire districts and cities are being threatened by the Taliban’s military offensive, resulting in the insurgents capturing American-supplied material.
  • The worsening security situation has prompted a mobilization to armed militias and led many to worry once again about a return to all-out civil war.
United States President Joseph Biden met with President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan last week to discuss recent setbacks in Afghanistan. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken commented last week that Washington was assessing whether the Taliban was serious about the peace process, a concept that might seem absurd considering the uptick in insurgent activity since President Biden announced his intentions to withdraw U.S. troops in mid-April. While the Taliban has long followed a “fight-and-talk” approach, in early July 2021, there is a lot of fighting and not much talking. Moreover, actions speak louder than words, and the Taliban’s military offensives seem to indicate little interest in a power-sharing agreement with the Afghan government. The Taliban remain confident, Afghan forces are on the defensive, and the U.S. is racing for the exits. Meanwhile, regional powers are angling to secure their respective national interests, cutting deals with various powerbrokers, and jockeying for position, and the very communities the US purported to protect remain more vulnerable than ever.

Recent assessments by the U.S. intelligence community have concluded that the Afghan government could collapse within the next six months, following the withdrawal of U.S. troops. Others believe the collapse could come even sooner. General Austin Miller, commander of U.S.-led forces, recently noted that “civil war is certainly a path that can be visualized.” Over the past several weeks, Taliban fighters have overrun parts of northern Afghanistan, gaining control over a third of the country as Afghan security forces have been unable to hold their ground in the face of the militants’ onslaught. There is looming uncertainty surrounding the future of U.S. air support to Afghan forces engaged in heavy fighting, which continues to take a toll on the population. Deborah Lyons, the United Nation’s top envoy for Afghanistan, has repeatedly voiced concerns about an imminent crisis, noting a twenty-nine percent increase in civilian casualties over the first several months of this year, including a rise in casualties among women and children, and a negative trajectory on key trends relating to politics, security, the peace process, the economy, the humanitarian emergency, and COVID. Civilians have borne the brunt of the fighting and misery, which has been compounded by Afghanistan’s continued struggles in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fighting has raged in Kunduz, Afghanistan’s sixth-largest city on the country’s northeastern border with Tajikistan. Entire districts and cities are being threatened by the Taliban’s military offensive, which in some cases has resulted in the insurgents capturing American-supplied vehicles and equipment from Afghan forces. There were several reports of Afghan forces simply abandoning their positions and surrendering weapons to the Taliban in exchange for free passage. The scenes are already eerily reminiscent of what played out in parts of Iraq in the early stages of the rise of the so-called Islamic State. That scenario could very well repeat itself in Afghanistan, providing transnational terrorist groups like al-Qaeda and the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) with the momentum necessary to rebuild their respective operational and organizational capabilities and capitalize on regional discontent and grievances. As U.S. military planners prepare for the possibility of having to evacuate U.S. personnel should the situation deteriorate rapidly, the other comparison many are making is to Saigon in 1975, when U.S. forces left Vietnam.

The worsening security situation has prompted a mobilization of armed militias and increased warlord activity, leading many Afghans and observers to worry once again about a return to all-out civil war. The country has been continuously plagued by violence and conflict for the past four decades. ISKP’s brutal sectarian agenda is designed to further fuel the potential for civil war, modeled after al-Qaeda’s terror campaign in Iraq in the mid-2000s, led by jihadist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Over the course of the past two months, the Taliban have captured dozens of district capitals and there is speculation that its fighters are waiting until the U.S. troop withdrawal is complete before advancing in earnest on major cities, like Kandahar. In a shakeup designed to improve morale, the Afghan government recently appointed a new acting minister of defense, minister of interior and army chief. When coupled with battlefield setbacks and soldiers who have gone unpaid for months, the signs are ominous. Without American and NATO military support to the Afghan government and security forces, many fear a complete Taliban military takeover of the country by year’s end.

MESOPOTAMIA NEWS CONTRA CANCEL   : Die Zukunft Europas – Das “jüdisch-christliche Erbe” des Kontinents soll erhalten bleiben

von CD Media Staff 27. Juni 2021

In den letzten Jahren rückte das “jüdisch-christliche” Erbe zusammen mit der Identität und Zukunft des Kontinents in den Vordergrund des Diskurses in Europa. Konservative Politiker, Entscheidungsträger, religiöse Führer, Denker in Ungarn bezeichneten die jüdisch-christlichen WurzelnEuropas – und das daraus abgeleitete Kultur- und Wertesystem – häufiger als die ursprüngliche Identität des alten Kontinents, die bewahrt werden muss. Die Wurzeln, die, wenn Europa leugnet und aufgibt, seine Zukunft verfälschen können. Aber was genau ist die jüdisch-christliche Tradition?

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MESOPOTAMIA NEWS HISTORY : REMEMBER CHE GUEVARA FRIEND REGIS DEBRAY ? NOW AN EXTREME CONSERVATIVE !

Régis Debray, Radical Conservative – By Cristopher Caldwell – June 28, 2021  – Claremont Institute  Center for the American Way of Life

Looking back on his time as a Cuban-trained communist revolutionary, the French writer Régis Debray recalled that Chile’s Marxist president used to display on his desk a photo of guerrilla leader Che Guevara, inscribed: “To Salvador Allende, who is headed to the same place by a different path.” It was a prophecy of sorts: Guevara would be captured and shot by Bolivian army troops while trying to foment an uprising in the country’s southern highlands in 1967. In 1973, Allende would commit suicide during a coup d’état, just after making a radio address to the nation, and just before insurgent forces led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet stormed the national palace.

Debray, comrade, confidant, and adviser to both men, took the same path to a decidedly different place. Now eighty, he gives grumpy interviews in the rightwing daily Le Figaro. He mocks the ­enthusiasms of France’s intellectual class, from “democracy promotion” to the Muslim headscarf to the environmental preaching of Greta Thunberg. He fulminates on national television about the folly of a borderless world, writes literary appreciations of the great prose stylists of the high French tradition, from Paul Valéry to Julien Gracq, regularly invokes the decline of the West, and insists that when his fellow Frenchmen speak about politics they are often, without realizing it, speaking about religion.

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